SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-279.01 AMSAT SYMPOSIUM CORRECTION AMSAT News Service Bulletin 279.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. OCTOBER 6, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-279.01 Due to an unfortunate mix-up the telephone number printed in the July/August issue of the AMSAT Journal for 20th Space Symposium accomodations in Ft. Worth is incorrect. The Telephone Number should be (817)-361-9797 The Fax number is 817-361-9444. The preferential AMSAT Group rate ($75 + Taxes) is being held until 16 October. If you have tried to make bookings and told that they are full, this was due to an AmeriSuites staff error, rooms are still available as of October 1. I look forward to seeing you in Fort Worth 73 Robin Haighton VE3FRH President AMSAT [ANS thanks Robin, VE3FRH, for the above information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-279.02 ANS GOOD NEWS OF THE WEEK AMSAT News Service Bulletin 279.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. OCTOBER 6, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-279.02 ** ANS is expanding this section. We will continue to welcome and will publish your good news of success in working a new satellite, new DX, new mode, etc. We also want to add reports about what space related activities your local satellite groups and ham clubs are doing. As such, we have changed the title of this section to the "Weekly Operating Update". Send your operating reports to ANS Editor JoAnne Maenpaa (wb9jej@amsat.org) and they will be printed here. ** Newly licensed Dennis KC2JVJ describes his first contact with the ISS last week as, "A heart pounding, jump up and down, call dad (KC2TN) and get him out of bed (at 3 AM) moment." He began his research on how to use the satellites on the Amsat web page, and spent the better part of a day clicking link after link. This eventually lead him to the link for ARISS. With his radio ready with all of the frequencies he was ready to give it a try. Dennis was waiting, "The time for the ISS rise was ~3:21 a.m. It was now 3:22 a.m. and nothing." A moment later he heard the CQ from NA1SS. Then, "NA1SS NA1SS NA1SS this is Kilo Charlie 2 Juliette Victor Juliette Do you copy? Over." His second call got a reply from NA1SS, "Kilo Charlie 2 Juliette Victor Juliette Go Ahead. Over." Dennis remembers the next few moments telling himself to calm down. You've got to talk back now! Dennis: "Good Morning..... I am copying you 5 over 9 Thank you for the contact you are about to go below the horizon. So I will say good luck and keep up the good work. OVER" NA1SS: "OK Thank you OVER" Dennis provides some closing thoughts, "This is what I like about Amateur Radio. This is what I want to share with my son and nephew. This is what is going to get them into ham radio." ** Shawn N1HOQ reports his first copy on the AO-40 S-band beacon last week. He said, "Yesterday my antenna showed up, finally, and up the tower I went! Tonight I found the middle beacon, first weak then by 0454z it was nice and loud with telemetry decoding fairly well with AO-40rcv program." His antenna is a Directive Systems 27 turn Helix with radome. With the beacon solid copy and less than ideal squint, Shawn sums it up with, "What a surge of adrenaline when I first heard the beacon! And again when RCV decoded 'HI THIS IS AMSAT OSCAR 40'. Its been a long time coming, its why I got back into sats after a long hiatus. See you all on 40 soon!" ** Al KD4SFF tells of a simultaneous radio and visual contact with the ISS last weekend while attending the South Carolina Wings Weekend held at the Greenville downtown airport, where he assisted with an amateur radio display, "The guest speaker at Saturdays evenings Wings dinner was South Carolina astronaut and ISS Expedition 3 Cmdr Frank Culbertson Jr. His parents, and other family members were among over 500 in attendance. During Frank's speech there was a 82 degree double ISS and Progress visual pass occurring. Several of us went outside the hanger, to view the ISS. I turned on my mobile radio which I had attached an arrow antenna, just in case Valery was on. As the ISS broke the horizon, we heard Valery clearing with another station. I called to him with our club call - N4ISS - and he returned my call. I told Valery that Frank Culbertson was giving a speech, and I turned the mic over to Frank's cousin, Martin Culbertson. Martin was able to pass Frank's best wishes to Valery. In turn, Valery wished Frank Culbertson best wishes on his retirement from NASA. Rex Smith, the liaison person for the ISS for South Carolina was also able to speak to Valery. Rex is now 'hooked' and is going to get his amateur radio license! I played the audio tape of Valery's wishes to Frank and his family after his speech! Everyone was ecstatic!" [ANS thanks and congratulates KC2JVJ, N1HOQ, and KD4SFF for this week's Operating Update.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-279.03 70-CM BAND THREAT AMSAT News Service Bulletin 279.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. OCTOBER 6, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-279.03 WRC-03 70-CM BAND THREAT DISCUSSED BY SARL It has come to the attention of the South African Radio League, SARL that the threat to the 70-cm band WORLD WIDE is once again very real. The SARL has just received a discussion paper which will be tabled at the World Radio Conference next year (WRC-03) which directly targets the portion of 432 to 438 MHz for exclusive use by the planned Earth Exploration Satellite Service (EESS) due to be launched soon. If this proposal is carried at the World Radio Conference next year it will see this portion of spectrum allocated on a worldwide basis and this spells the death knell of all 70-cm operation. The SARL is engaged in urgent talks with the SA regulatory body, ICASA, and other interested parties to try and convince them that this would be a severe blow to amateur radio. The section of the proposal and the motivation is as follows: Agenda Item 1.38: 'to consider provision of up to 6 MHz of frequency spectrum to the Earth exploration-satellite service (active) in the frequency band 420-470 MHz, in accordance with Resolution 727 (Rev. WRC-2000).' Background. According to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Rio de Janeiro, 1992, there is an urgent need for assessment and systematic observations of forest cover and rate of forest degradation in tropical and temperate regions. Active space borne sensors (Synthetic Aperture Radars (SARs) are needed to enable the monitoring of forest biomass. Systems operating on frequencies around 450 MHz can penetrate the canopy of forests, and have the capability to determine the ground-trunk interaction and are in the context of forest cover information of particular importance. Systems operating at 1,3 GHz, or higher frequencies cannot penetrate the canopy. The spectrum around 450 MHz is also optimal for monitoring of continental ice and for monitoring of vegetation and soil surfaces for desert and tropical areas. Probably, as the SARL are saying, "never before have we needed as many amateurs as possible to join and illustrate to the regulatory authority that strength lies in numbers.' [ANS thanks Alec, M1BNK, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-279.04 ARISS CONTACT SCHEDULE AMSAT News Service Bulletin 279.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. OCTOBER 6, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-279.04 Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2002-10-02 18:00 UTC The ARISS (a joint effort of AMSAT, the ARRL, NASA, the ARISS international partners including Canada, Russia, the European Partners, and Japan) operations team wishes to announce the following very tentative schedule for ARISS school contacts. This schedule is very fluid and may change at the last minute. Remember that amateur radio use on the ISS is considered secondary. Please check the various AMSAT and ARISS web pages for the latest announcements. Changes from the last announcement are noted with (***). Also, please check MSNBC.com for possible live retransmissions (http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp). Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.80 MHz. For information about educational materials available from ISS partner space Agencies, please refer to links on the ARISS Frequently Asked Questions page. If you are interested in supporting an ARISS contact, then you must fill in an application. The ARISS operations mentor team will not accept a direct request to support an ARISS contact. You should also note that many schools think that they can request a specific date and time. It does not work that way. Once an application has been accepted, the ARISS mentors will work with the school to determine a mutually agreeable date. Web sites that may be of interest include: http://www.arrl.org/sarex http://www.arrl.org/ariss http://www.amsat.org http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov http://spacelink.nasa.gov/index.html http://ehb2.gsfc.nasa.gov/edcats/educator_guide/ Your completely filled out application should be returned to the nearest coordinating ARISS region if your specific region is not listed. E-mail is the preferred method of submitting an application. Here are the email addresses: ARISS-Canada and all other countries not covered: ve2ka@rac.ca (Daniel Lamoureux VE2KA) ARISS-Europe: jh.hahn@gmx.net (J. Hahn, DL3LUM / PA1MUC) ARISS-Japan and all Region 3 countries: iaru-r3@jarl.or.jp (Keigo Komuro JA1KAB) ARISS-Russia: n2ww@attbi.com (Valerie Agabekov N2WW/UA6HZ) ARISS-USA: ARISS@arrl.org (The American Radio Relay League) ISS Expedition 5 crew: Peggy Whitson KC5ZTD Sergei Treschev RZ3FU Valeri Korzun RZ3FK Joamie Ilniarvik, Iqualuit, Nunavut, Canada Fri. 2002-09-27 13:41 UTC via ZS6BTD 41 deg Contact was successful. Congratulations Iqualuit and Peggy Whitson! (***) The school requests that anyone who may have recorded or has a transcript of (***) the downlink from Peggy for the Iqualuit contact to contact them. Please contact the ARISS mentor Steve VE3TBD at sm@onawing.com if you can help. (***) There was some interference from a new repeater in South Africa that the (***) ARISS team did not know about. (***) Lamar Elementary (was Travis), Greenville, Texas, direct via KC5GQP Option #1 Thursday October 17 @ 16:57 UTC (***) Option #2 Wednesday October 16 @ 17:52 UTC (***) Whitson Crew Pick, Spruce Hill Christian School (K-8), Philadelphia, PA Week of 2002-10-21 TBD Whitson Crew Pick, Silver Hills Middle School, Fairplay, CO Week of 2002-10-28 TBD Jamboree Station, The Netherlands, PI4RIS or PA3HGQ/J (***) TBD during JOTA 2002-10-19 to 2002-10-20 Frank De Winne Crew Pick, Royal Technical School Belgian Air Force, Sint Truiden, Belgium Direct via ON4BAF 2002-11-02 08:47 UTC (***) Frank De Winne Crew Pick, Euro Space Center, Transinne, Belgium, direct via ON4ESC or Telebridge 2002-11-01 09:43 UTC (***) Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, Chicago, Illinois direct via AJ9N TBD Look for possible live streaming video, the web site is http://www.adlerplanetarium.org Center for Educational Technologies, Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, WV Telebridge TBD St. Ursula's College, Toowoomba, Australia TBD The latest ARISS announcement and successful school list in now available on the ARISS web site. Several ways to get there. http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov click on English (sorry I don't know French) you are now at http://www.rac.ca/ariss.htm click on News Currently the ARISS operations team has a list of over 60 schools that we (***) hope will be able to have a contact during 2002-2003. As the schedule (***) becomes more solidified, we will be letting everyone know. Current plans call for an average of one scheduled school contact per week. [ANS thanks Charlie, AJ9N, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-279.05 PCSAT DAYLIGHT OPS ONLY AMSAT News Service Bulletin 279.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. OCTOBER 6, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-279.05 PCSat users have been requested to please turn off all unattended night time transmissions. Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, explains, "PCSat left full sun last Sunday. PCSat is still fully operational but is passing through 25 minute eclipses on every orbit." Bob continues,"We are leaving the user digipeater ON because that is what it is up there for, but I would ask that users go easy on her in the dark and please turn off ALL unattended beacons after dark and before sunrise! Let's see if we can keep her alive a while longer. We might be able to make it to full sun again in November with everyone's cooperation" Normal operations when the satellite is in sunshine are OK. [ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-279.06 MOBILE SATELLITE OPERATION AMSAT News Service Bulletin 279.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. OCTOBER 6, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-279.06 A exciting time is coming up for those satellite operators who are collecting grid squares. Jim Walls, K6CCC, explains. "Starting next Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2002, I will again be operating as the communication coordinator for a 5 day bicycle ride from Big Bear to Mammoth. As I did last year, I am expecting to operate quite a bit of mobile satellite during the trip. Because of the unfavorable operation of AO-40, I am not planning on bring any S-Band capability, and with AO-10 being off the air for most of this year, I am not bringing the long yagis required for that old bird. I will be on the LEO birds as much as my schedule allows. Remember that I am there to support the riders, and satellite operating is secondary. I will get on as much as I can however. Because I strongly favor the linear satellite over the FM birds, I will concentrate on FO-20, FO-29 and if I can get on during the day AO-7. Because I am enough of a realist, I know that most grid square hunting is on the FM birds, I will get on many of the FM passes too. Here is the schedule for the ride and the overnight stops (and a few other places I'll explain). All locations are in California. Tue. 8 Oct. overnight before ride - Big Bear - DM14ng Wed. 9 Oct - Barstow - DM14lv Thu. 9 Oct. overnight stop - Ridgecrest - DM15eo Fri. 10 Oct. late morning - Near Coso Junction - DM15ax / DM16aa border Fri. 10 Oct. overnight stop - Lake Diaz - DM06xn Fri. 10 Oct. alternate operating location - North of Owens Lake - DM06xn / DM16an border Sat. 11 Oct. overnight stop - Bishop - DM07ti Sat. 11 Oct. alternate operating location - East of Bishop - DM07xi / DM17ai border" Jim explains that, "Tuesday evening I may operate from Big Bear, but don't hold your breath. It's not a rare grid (there is another guy in Big Bear on the FM birds, and I live in the other end of that grid and am fairly active). Wednesday evening I'm usually pretty busy and again it's the same grid that I live in. Thursday evening is expected to be my first major operating location on most of the evening passes. Friday morning I will attempt (depending on the constraints of the bike ride) to activate from the DM15 / DM16 border when I cross it. Friday evening I will be camped at Lake Diaz (just south of Lone Pine), but last year I drove a couple miles so I could be on the DM06 / DM16 border. That's the only fairly sure bet for DM16 so I expect to go to the same place I did last year. Saturday evening overnight is in Bishop, but I expect to drive east to the DM07 / DM17 border for a couple of passes as I did last year. Sunday morning I was able to operate some on the drive up to Mammoth, but which passes is quite un-predictable. Sunday evening in Mammoth I will be tied up in the after-ride activities and will not operate." Stations requesting a QSL card are requested to include a SASE. Jim concludes by saying, "There is a possibility that I will have E-Mail access while on the road at a couple places (not to be counted on). Last year I had a pilot station that was able to feed updates to both AMSAT-BB and the AMSAT IRC. I will attempt to repeat that again." [ANS thanks Jim, K6CCC, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-279.07 NEWS IN BRIEF FOR THIS WEEK AMSAT News Service Bulletin 279.07 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. OCTOBER 6, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-279.07 **A Federal District Court has dismissed an RF related mobile telephone brain cancer suit. According to the C-G-C Communicator, the court ruled that the plaintiffs had not provided any reliable and relevant scientific evidence to prove their case. --Newsline ** There is a new release of Pocketsat, now called Pocketsat +. "I have been using Pocketsat for several years now and this new release is awesome." reports Bruce, KK5DO. Bruce adds, "It is written by and for astronomy people and yet works really well for hams." The new version also handles high orbit satellites instead of just LEOs. You can read about it and download the demo version at http://www.bigfattail.com/software/pocketsatplus/ -- Bruce KK5DO ** Astronomers have created an Earth-sized virtual radio telescope that can detect features 3,000 times smaller than the Hubble Space Telescope can see. The virtual device, which was created by linking signals from radio tele- scopes on several continents, is the first to operate at shortest-ever 2 millimeter radio wavelengths. The new telescope resolved an angle of 50 micro arc seconds, or about one hundred millionth of a degree of the sky giving it an equivalent power of being able to see the dimples on a golf ball in Los Angeles while sitting in New York. -- University of Arizona ** Using NASA's Chandra's X-Ray Observatory, for the first time astronomers have observed the X-ray jets from a black hole over their entire lifetime, from initial explosion to ultimate disappearance. -- NASA /EX